Our Battles
by SaraStar
Summary: The CSI team goes on a camping trip together, a trip none of them really wants to attend. But spending five days in the middle of nowhere with only each other, forces them to open up to and solve out both their internal and mutual battles.
1. Chapter One

**A/N: **I know, I KNOW, starting another new story. But I've decided to focus my writing on this one and 'Closure' for now, which are my stories I'm most inspired for and excited about at the moment. This is a beginning I wrote a while ago and it really is just a fun story. I'm not following the show as it is at the moment. In my fic the team is still together and all of the characters are still alive and in Las Vegas. I'm trying to give each character the same amount of attention in this story. It will be hard, as I'm usually focused on Greg and Sara (hence this chapter too), but it's a challenge and I like those. I'll shut up now and I hope you guys enjoy this. I certainly enjoy writing it. ****

Our Battles

**Chapter One**

"What the hell does this thing what from me?!" Sara shouted out, exasperation evident in her voice. Frustrated she gave a firm pull at the guy-rope, which was supposed to hold up the tent-poles on which the tent was leaning. But every time she pulled the rope, the tent-pole would crash down again. She let go of the rope, resulting in the whole thing now to collapse to the ground.

Angrily, Sara took off her blue cap and wiped some sweat away from her forehead, exhaling loudly. For at least the tenth time that day she asked herself why on earth she was doing this. A few weeks ago, her elder co-worker Catherine Willows, had suggested that the whole CSI team go on a trip together. "To blow off some stream from the pain and misery we see together every day," were the woman's exact words. Sara rolled her eyes remembering.

Their supervisor, Gil Grissom, hadn't been all that enthusiastic about it at first, but good friends as they were, Catherine knew how to talk him into things, and she was the reason he was now eagerly smashing tent pins into the ground with a hammer. Nick Stokes and Warrick Brown had thought it 'sounded good to them' when Catherine had proposed her plan to them, but Sara was absolutely sure that they only had said to please Catherine, for whom they both had a weakness. When Sara had heard about 'the trip' she had first wondered if Catherine was feeling alright. But when Greg Sanders, her younger co-worker and former lab rat, had been nearly jumping around from excitement to her about it, she couldn't bear to say no.

Only had she had a different image in her head by a 'co-worker trip' than her female colleague. Camping in the middle of nowhere was apparently Catherine's idea of team bonding and if Sara hadn't promised to come along to Greg she would never have stepped into the car this morning.

"Not working? Wait, let me help you."

Sara looked up by the sound of Greg's voice. She forced a smile to her face and stepped aside to give him his way. She pulled her water bottle out of her backpack and watched as Greg skillfully adjusted the guy-rope until it was long enough to touch the ground, before hooking it on to a tent-pin and slamming the pin down with his hammer.

"Done."

He looked up at her , squeezing his eyes slightly against the sun.

"Thanks, Greg."

"No problem!" Pleased with himself, Greg smiled at her, before turning to go back to the other tent he was putting up with Grissom. He only seemed to have forgotten about the guy-rope he had just put up so brilliantly, because when he stepped on, his foot got stuck behind it, and he fell flatly forward into the grass.

Sara felt the temptation to burst out laughing, but Greg's tomato red face, looking sad and ashamed, made her suppress it. She couldn't stand to see him like this, so she quickly reached out her hand to him, which he gratefully took and she helped him up.

With a quick glance around she noticed all of the other CSIs had stopped their activities and were looking at Greg. Her mind worked at high speed; she had to do something to save his reputation.

"Sorry, Greggo, that was my fault! Forget I had that rope pulled out, otherwise I would've warned you. Stupid, sorry."

"T-That's okay, I guess," Greg mumbled, wiping the dirt of off his trousers.

Sara let out a breath when the rest decided this was no longer interesting and continued putting up their tents. Greg looked at her, and his mouth muffled the words 'Thank you'. She smiled at him and he turned to go back to his tent now.

With her hands on her hips, Sara scanned the area around her. To her left Warrick and Catherine were struggling to get up a tent. Sara saw Catherine's chest rising and then falling, indicating she was sighing heavily and she realized to her small delight that even the woman behind this lovely adventure didn't seem too amused at the moment.

To her right Grissom and Greg were working on another tent. Nick stood bent over working on his tent, sweat on his forehead.

Sara had no idea how, but half an hour later all three tents were up, each of them sleeping two people.

"Alright," Catherine said, as they all had gathered together in a circle around her, "to avoid akward and childish situations about who sleeps where and who sleeps with who – _in a tent_, Greg, don't let your imagination run away with you – I made these little notes with your names on them, which will make the decision." She waved with a small box to show the others.

None said anything to that, but Sara knew they all thought the same: Catherine's little system would cause more 'awkward and childish situations' than if they had just solved it out together. But apparently nobody was planning on telling her this, so Sara decided to hold her tongue as well.

"Okay, here we go," Catherine continued, a little bit taken aback by none responding to her brilliance. She pulled two folded pieces of paper out of the box. "I've got here… Warrick and Nick."

"Hey man, you better not snore," Warrick said, as he and Nick started dragging their luggage towards the nearest tent.

"What, me? I never snore!"

Their voices faded away as they walked further from the group. The three left CSIs waited in silence as Catherine pulled another set of paper pieces out of the box.

"Sara and Greg."

Sara was too busy gathering her stuff together to notice Greg's eyes light up with happiness.


	2. Chapter Two

**A/N: **Here's the next chapter. Thanks for the reviews. Hope this will be enjoyed as well.

**Chapter Two  
**  
After dinner, which consisted of leftovers from the lunch packages that each of them had brought for the road, all of the CSIs had made their own ways. Grissom had caught a bug in a small glass bucket and was now reading up on this special kind in the entomology guide he had brought along, sitting on a blanket he had spread out on the ground. Catherine was solving crosswords sitting on a folding chair, every now and then looking at Grissom and shaking her head slightly.

To Catherine's right sat Greg and Nick. Each of them had one of the headphones of Greg's iPod in their ear and together they listened to all of their favorite heavy metal songs, bobbing their heads to the guitar riffles.

"Duuude, I love this song."

"I know right?!"

Sara and Warrick had taken place the furthest away from the others. Warrick had brought his guitar and filled the silence with his softly plucking of the strings. Sara threw angry glances in his direction every so often, because he distracted her from _On Chesil Beach_, which she was reading lying on her stomach with her feet crossed up in the air.

Behind the six of them the sun was slowly diving behind the trees. Dusk was already breaking through.

"Guys, I'm turning in. Maybe we all should." Catherine rose from her folding chair, clapping the crossword book shut.

Every one looked up at her, except for Greg and Nick who didn't hear her because of their loud music. Sara groaned under her breath. She couldn't stand how Catherine was playing mother to all of them, nudging them to go to bed. Just because she had come up with this trip didn't mean she would have power over them the whole week.

But she actually felt pretty tired and her arms were getting cramped from lying like this, so she swallowed her pride and came up from the ground as well.

"Greg, I'm going to bed," she said, as she and Greg would be sharing a tent. Greg didn't respond once again. She raised her voice, "Greg!", and touched his shoulder. He turned towards her and quickly took the earphone out of his ear.

"Hi, Sara!"

"I'm going to bed," Sara repeated.

"Oh, sure! I'll also go."

Nick looked amused and whistled teasingly. Sara rolled her eyes and turned on her heels, as Greg pulled the other earphone out of Nick's ear, glaring at him.

"Get a life, buddy," he said.

Nick grinned and rose from the ground, leaving to go to his own tent. Greg followed Sara to theirs.

When the both of them had arrived at the tent, Greg looked at Sara questioningly. "You uh… you want to get changed first? I can wait out here."

"Sure. I'll only be a minute."

"Oh, don't worry, take your time." He gave her a quick smile.

Sara bent down and opened the zip of the tent. Blindly, she searched for the flashlight she had taken with her in her rucksack. The sun was completely down by now, so she could barely see anything. Eventually she found the precious little thing and put it on, crawled into the tent and quickly zipped the tent back shut, so no mosquitoes, attracted by the light, were able to come in.

Greg stood outside in the darkness. He turned towards the tent as he saw the light being turned on from the corner of his eye.

Sara's silhouette appeared on the tent canvas; a tall, skinny figure. Greg held his breath as he watched her every move. Her long arms crossed in front of her waist and then moved upwards, indicating she was taking off her shirt. Her hair was dragged along with the shirt for a second, he saw her shaking her head to get it free, before it fell down again on her shoulders. Then her hands opened her trousers and shoved down, pulling the trousers off of her long, skinny legs.

In the back of his head, Greg knew he had to turn away right now. Even though there was a canvas wall between the two of them, he still felt like he was invading her privacy. But he was seemingly hypnotized by her silhouette. Every move she made was so elegant, so perfect. Not until now had he realized what a beautiful figure she had; hour-glass-like, with small, humble breasts and long legs.

He could just imagine her standing there, in her underwear, barefoot. He immediately cursed at himself for doing that, for he had no right to think of her that way. She was just a friend, maybe even just a co-worker. But still he couldn't stop his stomach to fill with butterflies when he thought of the fact that in half an hour he would be lying just inches away from her, on the air mattress next to hers.

Sara's figure now slipped into pajama pants and pulled something that looked like a tank top over her head.

"I'm done, Greg! You can come in!"

"Alright."

Greg took a deep breath and bent down to zip the canvas door open. Just at that moment the light flickered slightly and then went off, leaving the two of them in complete darkness.

"Damn it," sounded Sara's voice. There was some rummaging inside the tent, a clicking sound and then: "The battery is dead."

"Oh, oops."

Greg couldn't see his hand before his eyes. Carefully, he stepped into the tent and moved forwards with his hands stuck out in front of him. Inch by inch he shoved down the tent floor.

Eventually he felt his feet touch the end of one of the air mattresses. He sighed in relief and let himself fall down to it.

A loud cry from Sara; he had landed on top of her.

"Wrong mattress, Greg."

Blushing and cursing at himself, Greg pushed himself up from Sara's body underneath him and rolled over onto the other mattress. His heart was pounding.

"I-I'm so sorry!" he gasped.

Sara laughed. "It's okay, don't worry about it."

"Did I hurt you?" Greg asked, worried.

"No, I'm fine! Honestly."

Greg breathed out. In the dark he searched for the opening of his sleeping bag and slipped into it. Next to him he heard rummaging, indicating Sara was doing the same.

The two of them lay in silence for a while. Greg stared up at the ceiling of their tent. His eyes were starting to get used to the darkness. He felt he had to say something. Somehow he knew Sara wasn't asleep yet.

"So, what do you think of our trip so far?" he said, hesitatively.

She snorted. "Honestly? I can't wait to get out of here. Catherine and her great ideas…"

"Ah, yeah…"

Greg couldn't help being a little disappointed. He felt like a child, having looked so forward to this week. Of course he knew very well why. It wasn't because he enjoyed camping so much or for his special passion for the Nevada woods. All of his excitement could be summarized to one thing, one person to be exact.

The person next to him.


End file.
